A Pueblo mother is behind bars, accused of scalding her baby girl. The toddler, not quite two-years-old, suffered severe burns and was flow to Children’s Hospital in Denver for treatment.

The baby girl was burned in a bathtub about three weeks ago, and police say it was no accident. Investigators have been looking for the mother for the past couple of weeks. She turned herself in yesterday.

During a video hearing before a judge this afternoon, 25-year-old Elaine Ann Montoya is advised of the charge against her. “You’ve been arrested on a warrant for child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury. A class three felony.”

According to the arrest warrant Montoya told police she left the girl in the bathtub with the water running while she went to wash dishes. When she returned to the bathroom she state quote “Her little skin was coming off.”

Investigators don’t buy the mother’s story. They believe this is a classic caes of a forced immersion burn. Detective Mark Bravo of the Pueblo Police Department says, “a force immersion burn is a term used when someone will actually hold a child and force them into a hot liquid wether it’s hot grease or hot water.”

Doctors say the baby suffered second degree burns to her back side, upper thigs and abdomen. Montoya was the only adult in the house at the time of the scalding. She denies that it was intentional.

The baby is out of the hospital and is in foster care. The mother’s two other children have also been removed from the home.